Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser., 1887-02-25
Southern Maryland versus West.
We are glad to note that zaany of on

we are glad to note that zaany of our
otas- -!3eL5g g are taking upon them
selves the task OF encouraging immigra-
tion to our section from the more settled
portions Of the State, rather than to have
them seek homes in the undeveloped West.
The following forcible article from the
Cecil Democrat shows the interest mani
tested in this matter by our contempora-
ries: "There can be no longer a hoodwink-
ing of the inevitable conviction that the
tillers of the soil have got to better them
selves to avoid getting left in the race for
success, if not for livlihood itself. The
prairies of the West may be blessing to
the people generally but to the farmer of
the Atlantic coast the blessing is SO much
fcult. Their boundless resource as pro-
ducers of the cereals has made the culture
of wheat, corn and oats losing business
in these parts, and farmers will have to
find other means of boiling the pot, or 60
hungry to bed. That the cultivation of
fruits and vegetables whose perisbable
nature requires them to be early consum-
ed, is possible resource, is true. But, it
must be admitted that in some respects
the profitable growth of these is thing
of the past. Peaches are certainly not as
successful now as they were a generation
ago, hereabouts; and it may be that other
esculents will in as short time wear out
the soil that now produces them. In such
emergency, the question is natural: What
shall We turn to? Must the farmer 90
West, to risk other soil and leave his native
heath to the brambles Or will he rather
try other means TO rebuild the waste places
and re-fertilize the spots made barren by
excessive erroneous cultivation 1t would
seem less risky and easier to exercise the
faculties, in restoring the home, that will
be necessary in any event to fight the
wilderness of the West. The difficulty
with which the farmer has ever to contend
is the exhaustion of the soil. However
generous Mother Earth may he, there is a
limit to her resources. The til'er who
takes all from the soil that bounteous life
will yield, and keeps on taking year after
year, will certainly get the last tribute
eventually. Neither does it appear that
any amount of food supply can always re-
plenish exhausting vitality. 1t is mark
ed fact that the generous soil of Cecil and
its neighbors requires an ever Increasing
stimulent to produce the crops that used
to spring from their own bounty. 1t is
equally true and familiar fact to the far
mer that no amount of fertilizing will
make lands produce after many years what
they originally revelled in. The peach
crop, for instance, forty years ago flourish
ed hereabouts with all the vigor of an in
digenous growth. Farmers grew sudden
ly rich in the culture of the peach. Now
adays the soil that once seemed to blush
in the pride of its fertility is ''sickled over
with the pale cast of 'yellows.'" And no
remedy has been devised or discovered
What shall be donel Manifestly try other
soil that has not been ravished by the
peach. Appeal to other soils that may
find relief from the wasteless exhaustion
of the tobacco in fructifying the cereal
Who may say that the worn out lands OF
Charles, St. Mary's and Calvert, that have
literally pined away in the madhouses of
tobacco riot, may not be the garden spot
of the peach and the generous producer OF
wheat and corn at paying pricesf We
think that the part of wisdom would be
served by turning attention to the lands
of Southern Maryland which nature has
done 80 much to bless and man has tried
SO madly to curse"